Physical Appearance and Past Lives

[Anya]

Anya, I am both flattered and slightly embarrassed that you have been reading my posts. Somewhere ol' Ras called me by name.

Oh busybee.... I'm sorry for embarrassing you! Truly. That was not my intent. And just to clarify, I hope you don't feel that I've been reading about you in a creepy, stalker way, because I haven't! Don't worry. Really, I just have happened to read some of the threads that you have written in extensively because the topics interested me. It's not just you. I also feel rather familiar with people like Rastislav, Tiberius, Kesafloyd (spelling?), Nat, and others at this point for the same reason! But still. I do find your posts very interesting. I hope that doesn't embarrass you. I just kind of connected to some of them in a way. Not sure why. And I haven't seen the one where Rastislav refers to your name, but I still think I have a pretty good guess.

It's always nice to be believed, I have talked to several people about it over the years, but most of them are people who believe lots of strange things. Honestly, the only one who means anything is my fiance', who is quite a sceptic and took a long time to think about it before accepting it.
But I don't really worry anymore about any of us on here being believed. I figure that just by being here we all have a serious interest. Seems an awful lot of trouble to go to for lies. Maybe some might be deluded, but since it seems to be just the few of us these days, you do sort of get to know one another.

I suppose it's true that some of those who are believers tend to be those who are open-minded about the strange and paranormal in the first place. I suppose it's safe to say that I believe in things that most people would say I'm crazy for.

And I understand about your fiance being the only one that really matters. I feel the same way. I care much more that those closest to me think I'm sane, and that THEY believe me, than I do the general populace. My boyfriend is a major skeptic as well, and we connect in almost every way.... except when it comes to this reincarnation business. He doesn't believe me to this day. It makes me quite sad.

And that's a good point that it would be rather silly to come on a forum like this and invest hours of time just to lie. But I know that people still aren't believed a lot of the time.

Tiberius, this is just out of sheer curiosity, but how many simuls do you think you have? It seems like quite a few! I get very confused when I think about simultaneous lives, which is partly why I ask. You seem so level-headed about it! But it makes my head hurt a little.

[vajrasiddhi]

Hi everyone, I just joined the forum because of this thread. I hope it is ok if I join the discussion. Have you met people you remember from a past life and was their physical appearance similar? Lately I have been meeting people and remembering detailed facts about them. I am a skeptic and for a long time I dismissed everything as being just my overactive imagination. But lately I cannot ignore the certainty with which these memories occur in unexpected situations and only with a selected few people. It got to the point where I know in the morning if I will meet someone and I am always perplexed when it happens because usually it does so in the most unlikely ways. And while I recognize them clearly, they do not look the same as they are in my memories yet they kept something familiar. I know it is them. Do you have any thoughts on this?

[Tiberius]

Welcome to the forum. Oddly enough I just posted some new pictures in my thread in the impressions board. Will probably make more soon. I'll also try and get caught up responding to the rest of this thread soon. I've been posting on alot of boards lately so I'm having trouble keeping up.

[Ligeia]

hello vajrasiddhi!
i hope i spelled your name correctly
actually there was one person in my life, of whom i think i know who he was before. he passed away some years ago.
for the last couple of months i've been having a very strong feeling with a certain person in history (not very famous). it's not really memories, only a strong feeling of familiarity. at first i didn't know what to think of it but then it became clear to me that that historical person was actually the one who passed away (i'm sorry for not being more specific).
then suddenly i realized how similar these two persons actually look and how similar their personalities were. it's really strange and i'm not sure, maybe my mind is only making this up.
but maybe not

[Tiberius]

Haha! Rastislav, this made me laugh, mostly because I feel what you guys are saying! In fact, your preferring to be black reminds me of my little sister, who, because of my influences, believes in past lives (she's had some memories, too). She has, since childhood, been very disappointed that she wasn't black this time around, and in most of her past life memories, she has been black! She was psyched the first time she remembered a life, and she went to school and told everyone, "I was black!" Of course, no one believed her. Heehee. I also laugh at your preferring to be redhead and black, as this does sound a bit contradictory. I also thought that your painting analogy was a fascinating way of looking at this issue. I suppose that you can look nothing like someone, and yet still clearly be that person. You can have a completely different face, bone structure, race, or body, but you would still have that person's "essence" or trademark of sorts. Like with artists!

Well as I always like to say, just because my skin is pale and white doesn't mean I'm not black, I'm as black as the Irish-Scandinavian blood flowing through my veins! Most of my black lives were actually in Africa itself though. I only had two lives as an African-American and both were pretty bad: Escaped slave hung for murder in the 1860s and schizophrenic black teenager who committed suicide in the 1960s. Both were male and young. I feel strongly tied to that era and the Civil Rights movement, although I was quite young in that life and have no memories of actively taking part. Surely it must have affected me but in all my memories I was withdrawn and isolated. I was treated badly but don't recall any riots, marches or anything of the like, but then I'm pretty sure I lived in New Jersey and New York City. I might have lived down South earlier on and moved though. Someone who knew me in several lives, but who I am not currently in contact with, recalls being in a gang in Florida in their last life, so for a time I wondered if I lived in Florida in that life. Not really sure. I feel that life is a heavy influence on this one and my fiction as well. I also feel I have a black female simul but that could be a past life as I have memories of her ODing, though that could be in the future or overlapping with my current life, so I'm not sure.

Tiberius, I'm glad that I'm not the only one who finds Finkelstein and Johnadams.net to be a little dodgy. Everything that you said rather mirrored my intuition when I learned about these sites, but as I've mentioned, I never know how to trust my own feelings. I noticed another one on there recently, where they tried to "assign" Obama to some past historical figure, and they had a comparison of their handwritings. Maybe I'm crazy, but to me their handwritings look NOTHING alike! What do you all think about Sherrie Lea laird and the Marilyn Monroe claim? This is one of the few claims of Finkelstein's where the patient came out with the claim as well. And it's another case where they DO look a lot alike, but is that enough? I'll be interested to hear your thoughts!

I'm not so sure about Sherrie Lea, I only know a little bit about her case. I think she was on the reincarnation cafe site a long while back and she struck me as a bit off or dramatic, but then I suppose that might fit a person who was a sex symbol and drug user in their last life. I really can't say though, insufficient data.

Who did John Adams "assign" to Obama? My own impression was that Obama was a politician in his last life sometime during the New Deal, maybe 1880s-1940s. Not sure if there was a life between but that's just my strongest impression. Also an African prince at some point. Oddly enough I felt I knew John McCain in some other life, not sure where. He gives off a VERY strong Roman vibe. Who was he assigned?

INteresting. I suppose it is true that if you try hard enough, you can find reasons why anyone can look like any notable figure. And handwriting, I'm sure does change, because it's also influenced by how we're taught, by culture, etc (even my grandparents say that how they teach handwriting has changed over time).

I hope handwriting changes because mine is awful! Fortunately by next life, and even already now, typing will come to almost completely replace the hand written word. I haven't seen many examples of my FPLs handwriting though, but I can see some similarities.

As for me mum, I don't know how much I should share. I don't know how she feels about it. Of course, I know this is anonymous, but I just feel that it's not my story to tell, if that makes sense. If it was my own experience, I would, but since it's not my memories and not my own personal business, I should probably respect her privacy.

I will say how she came to some of her conclusions, but I won't say who (though I'm afraid you may guess somehow, just as everyone did with busybee's).

It was pretty vague, you didn't give it away. I have no idea who she feels she was from the information you have provided.

Anyway, Tiberius, you also make me laugh, but at least you guys understand my saying that I wish I had a different body! Heck, I always thought I should have been in a different culture this time around as well! And interesting what you say about hormonal influences and brain chemistry.

I'd prefer to be a whole different species on a whole other planet! It's been 20-30,000 years but I don't think I've ever got over being imprisoned here on Earth. If it weren't such a huge, costly and long process I'd seriously consider getting sex reassignment surgery. Even so it still couldn't make me an Asian woman . Though if genetic engineering and new technologies continue to advance it may very well become easier and if that's the case it might grow harder and harder to resist altering my body. If they create a pill that can change skin color I could at the very least be a black woman perhaps! Oh well, always next life I suppose. But if I have to return to Earth again I'd better be Asian and female!

[Rastislav]

But what is to be preferred about having red hair?

If you came from Kumára, everything.

By the way, knowing how the genetics of hair color works, it is quite possible for a black to be a redhead. And as soon as they start appearing, I will have to be one!

[Nat]

As to the 'but what is to be preferred' on this vs. that question, I'd guess it's strongly about personal likes vs. dislikes. One can't really help it at some instances, if having some favorite 'body-type', as much as you don't entirely 'pick' people you're attracted to just by choice.

Other factors are important, but there's I imagine something hard-wired in your body determining who you're attracted to *essentially*, genetically speaking. I don't see why it would be necessary different for the 'soul', the body the soul 'wears' for any particular moment is still something they, in the better case, should feel comfortable in. Even if, of course, I don't know about any actual 'science' that would be 'genetics of the soul' of that type.

[Anya]

Hello vajrasiddhi! I don't know if I welcomed you yet because it's been awhile since I responded to this thread. So welcome.

Have you met people you remember from a past life and was their physical appearance similar? Lately I have been meeting people and remembering detailed facts about them. I am a skeptic and for a long time I dismissed everything as being just my overactive imagination. But lately I cannot ignore the certainty with which these memories occur in unexpected situations and only with a selected few people. It got to the point where I know in the morning if I will meet someone and I am always perplexed when it happens because usually it does so in the most unlikely ways. And while I recognize them clearly, they do not look the same as they are in my memories yet they kept something familiar. I know it is them. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Of all the people in my current life that I have "recognized" (or that I at least BELIEVE I recognize from a past life), I can't think of very many that had a similar physical appearance to the past personality. Indeed, even regarding my own possible memories, I recognize myself in the memories, but I very rarely have looked similar physically from then to my present lifetime (there are a couple exceptions though!); this holds true for my mother as well, who has had a few memories of her own. Rather, in my case anyway, I have recognized people (or myself) on a soul level; I have met them and recognized them instantly, but it's more of an intuitive, gut reaction instead of something based on appearance. Instead, there is a familiarity of energy, something that is indefinable on a tangible level. Sometimes it'll be, "I recognize this stranger, but from where? I know I've never seen them in this life" and sometimes, it's what you describe, where I have a feeling I'm going to meet a specific person and I recognize them and I have a strong feeling as to where I've known them in the past! But again, it's usually not about physical appearance for me (which is partly why I was perplexed about this topic and posted it in the first place! Also, as a disclaimer, I am a bit of a novice at recognizing people in my memories; I have only recognized a limited number of people! So this is just my own experience.

Rastislav made a good analogy earlier in the thread about painters whose work can look vastly different from piece to piece but still, the work retains the energy of the maker.

Also, I too, have a hard time about trusting my own perceptions or wondering if they're an overactive imagination. It can be quite confusing!

Who did John Adams "assign" to Obama? My own impression was that Obama was a politician in his last life sometime during the New Deal, maybe 1880s-1940s. Not sure if there was a life between but that's just my strongest impression. Also an African prince at some point. Oddly enough I felt I knew John McCain in some other life, not sure where. He gives off a VERY strong Roman vibe. Who was he assigned?

Obama was assigned as the reincarnated Lyman Trumbull, who lived from 1813-1896, and who was, obviously, a politician. So your impression was pretty close. The site goes into details about this assignment. The majority of the reasoning for this assignment is the fact that the two supposedly look alike (though, to be honest, they also format the pictures in a way that gets an ideal vision of possible similarities) and the fact that Kyle Ryerson says that it is true.

Do you know about Kyle Ryerson, Tiberius (or anyone for that matter?)? What do you think? Legitimate or dodgy? They use him as "evidence" all over the place on johnadams.net.

John McCain is assigned as Senator Henry Clay (again, mostly because they look alike, Kyle Ryerson says it's true, they both love America, and they both lost presidential races). He lived from 1777 to 1852. Does this ring a bell for your feelings Tiberius? I can see where you get the Roman vibe from McCain, though I'd never considered that until you mentioned it.

I'd prefer to be a whole different species on a whole other planet! It's been 20-30,000 years but I don't think I've ever got over being imprisoned here on Earth. If it weren't such a huge, costly and long process I'd seriously consider getting sex reassignment surgery. Even so it still couldn't make me an Asian woman . Though if genetic engineering and new technologies continue to advance it may very well become easier and if that's the case it might grow harder and harder to resist altering my body. If they create a pill that can change skin color I could at the very least be a black woman perhaps! Oh well, always next life I suppose. But if I have to return to Earth again I'd better be Asian and female!

Oh, I'm very sorry that you've never been able to get over being imprisoned in all that time . That sounds rather sad, to say the least. At least you can remember where you've come from though? You can remember other lives on other planets as other species, so that may be a comfort, at least (or perhaps it makes it worse, knowing that you COULD be somewhere else!). I haven't remembered any lives on other planets, but I've kind of sensed that I don't belong here.

I would not be the least surprised if genetic engineering does begin to cross the boundaries that you speak of, meaning that you could be an Asian female! With the advances being made, people are already able to choose sexes, different health variables (such as, "I don't want this disease") and even minor physical traits (such as large noses) and temperament leanings. If it keeps going the way that it is, I wouldn't be surprised to see people able to choose other characteristics as well.

And yes, my sister says that she MUST be black in her next life!

Speaking of the physical preferences and Rastislav's love of red hair, I read an article not too long ago that scientists believe that the genes for red hair will be completely phased out of human genetics within the next century, meaning that there will be no more red heads! What do you guys think of this? I read another article about the original National Geographic article that suggested redhead extinction; this other article said that red hair will probably not become extinct, it will just continue to be rare. Or maybe if genetic engineering DOES continue, people like Rastislav can just continue to choose red hair (and dark skin )!

[Rastislav]

I read an article not too long ago that scientists believe that the genes for red hair will be completely phased out of human genetics within the next century, meaning that there will be no more red heads!

Never trust an article which says that scientists believe something. Any such article is obviously not written by a scientist and makes sweeping generalizations.

Indeed, if you study how the genetics of red hair works, you will see that such a "belief" does not add up. If anything, the number of redheads should increase.

[Anya]

Never trust an article which says that scientists believe something. Any such article is obviously not written by a scientist and makes sweeping generalizations.

Indeed, if you study how the genetics of red hair works, you will see that such a "belief" does not add up. If anything, the number of redheads should increase.

Haha! True. And I've noted that. I don't know for sure if I believed it, but I thought I'd pose the theory to you all. The article that I read was in National Geographic and I remember it listing actual scientists (I think, if I remember correctly), so was it was not as over-generalized as some of the online articles that came afterwards. As I said, I did read another corresponding article by a geneticist that said that, given how genetics work, redheads would not phase out completely (especially if the red head gene serves a specific evolutionary purpose) and even if they DID go temporarily extinct, the gene would still be carried and would therefore reappear eventually. The notion was that even if the modern world has given humans the opportunity to travel freely and thus, somehow diminish the number of red heads due to more cross-cultural parenting (part of the original reasoning as to why they'd go extinct), redheads would still never go away completely.

But I ramble.

Forgive my possible naivete, but why should the number of redheads INCREASE?? I suppose I should just go read your link first...

[Rastislav]

It should increase because people these days are mixing freely, where people no longer just partner within their own race. And because the red gene has incomplete dominance (all explained in the linked page), the gene will spread unnoticed and show up generations later (as it has among the Caucasians).

The redness of hair is independent of the darkness of the hair (from blond to black), being carried by a separate gene. And if left to random chance, mathematically speaking, 25% of population would not have it, 50% would have one of the pair, and 25% would have both. So, the majority of human population would have at least some redness in their hair, with as much as 25% of human population having strong redness in their hair.

It would not show in all of them because the red combines with the brown and when you mix a light color (red) with a dark color (brown), we only see the darker color. So, if left to chance, 75% of human population would have at least somewhat red hair, though we might not necessarily see it.

Save for some complete evolutionary change that completely changes the human DNA, red hair is indestructable and well protected. Since it cannot always be seen, it will always survive any kind of mad dictator who may decide to kill all redheads. Unless, of course, he managed to study the DNA of every person in the world and kills 75% of the population.

Heck, redheads were persecuted for many centuries. The Egyptians buried them alive, the medieval Europeans burned them alive. And we still have redheads today. All that persecution caused the number of redheads to be as low as it is today. But since that persecution is over (I mean the physical persecution, the prejudices are still around), the number of redheads should gradually increase. And since genetically red hair is independent of anything else, we should start seeing black redheads and Chinese redheads, etc, within a few generations.

[Anya]

Hmmm.... Interesting. Thank you for the explanation! I liked your link too; it was very informative.

What's interesting is that the foundation of your reasoning for a GREATER number of redheads in the future is the same foundation as others' reasoning for fewer or the EXTINCTION of redheads. Those who say that redheads will be extinct explain that it is because people these days are mixing freely, with different races, and moving freely from nation to nation. They say that, because red hair is rare already and because usually dark hair shows instead of the red component, the dark will win out and the red will phase out (whereas before, areas with a large red hair population, like Scotland and Ireland, were all together so the red hair would just keep continuing).

I think the explanation from your link and from your post is preferred, however, particularly because I don't want redheads to go extinct; I think it'd be wonderful if the number increased and if it began to appear in other ethnicities as well.

Plus, it is true that redheads have been persecuted and no one has ever succeeding in diminishing them before.

I think your explanation makes much more sense. And I am relieved, because I believe that I've been a redhead quite often before and would like to experience it again.

[Rastislav]

I believe that I've been a redhead quite often before and would like to experience it again.

I can relate to that!

Though it does beg the obvious question: Could you be a Kumáran?

[busybee83]

Hey now, a person doesn't have to be from Kumara to have red hair. I am a perfect example of this. I know someone who says he has almost always been one, and never mentioned anything about other planets. Personally, I wish I could have dark hair again, mostly because every other time but this I did, and it is familiar and comfortable. I find the redness (and it is very, very bright and shiny) to be a bit unnerving, to tell the truth. It's kind of like being famous, where I can't go anywhere unnoticed unless I'm in disguise, people come up to me as if we're friends, children stare at me. Well, children from darker families. Except that I haven't done anything to deserve the attention, and a lot of the time I would be happier without it.
But now it is I who is rambling.
Anyway, Ras, maybe she just wants to be red again because it is familiar and comfortable.

[Rastislav]

Hey now, a person doesn't have to be from Kumara to have red hair.

I did not imply otherwise. I am just asking if Anya might be.